Leaving October 1

Directed by Sepideh Farsi | 100 mins | 2023
Crisply animated in a vivid, minimalistic 2D style, Farsi’s "The Siren" shows us the opening salvos of the devastating 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, and their terrible human toll, in telling the tale of 14-year-old Omid. As hostile forces threaten to encircle his hometown of Abadan, Iran’s largest port, Omid—with his older brother conscripted to head to the front and most of his family in flight—remains with his grandfather and his cockfighting rooster, calling on his every available resource to provide assistance to those left behind and find a route out of the besieged city. A stirring story of human resistance in the face of dehumanizing warmongering.